sarah cook                      curator / writer / researcher / @sarahecook

Sarah Cook is a curator, writer and researcher based in Scotland. She is Professor of Museum Studies in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow. From 2023 she is a guest professor in Art and AI with UmArts at University of Umeå as part of the WASP-HS programme.

She is editor of 24/7: A Wake-up Call For Our Non-stop World (Somerset House, 2019) and INFORMATION (Documents of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel and MIT Press, 2016) and co-author (with Beryl Graham) of Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media (MIT Press, 2010; Chinese edition 2016).

Sarah has curated and co-curated over 50 international exhibitions of contemporary art, new media art and digital art for museums, galleries and festivals including Somerset House, BALTIC, Eyebeam, V2_, The Banff Centre, AV Festival, AND Festival, Transitio Festival, Edith Russ Haus, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and for online platforms including Xcult, Add-art, SAW Video, and Bielefelder Kunstverein. From 2013 to 2020 Sarah was one of the curators behind Scotland’s only digital arts festival NEoN Digital Arts and was founder/curator of LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery in the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee (both as part of her role as Dundee Fellow at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, 2013-2018). At LifeSpace she curated 16 exhibitions including newly commissioned work from artists Mat Fleming, Heather Dewey Hagborg and Philip Andrew Lewis, Andy Lomas, Daksha Patel, the Center for Postnatural History, Helen and Kate Storey, Mary Tsang, Thomson & Craighead and others.

In 2021-2022 Sarah was a senior academic research fellow at TATE as part of the Mellon-funded project Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum. Together with Beryl Graham, Sarah co-founded CRUMB, the longstanding online resource and network for curators of new media art, hosting workshops and courses worldwide. She holds a Masters degree from CCS at Bard, and a PhD from the University of Sunderland (2004) where she was employed until 2013, undertaking research, supervising PhD students and developing and teaching on the MA Curating course. As part of her research funded by the AHRC, Sarah worked as adjunct curator of new media at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art until 2006, and in 2008 was the inaugural curatorial fellow at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York.

Having grown up in Canada, Sarah has held a longstanding association with The Banff Center where she has worked as a guest curator and researcher in residence for the Walter Phillips Gallery, the International Curatorial Institute and what was the Banff New Media Institute, developing exhibitions, summits, residencies and publications. She co-edited with Sara Diamond Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues (Banff Centre Press, 2011).

Sarah founded and chaired the annual ‘mini-symposium’ at NEoN Festival and in 2019 co-chaired Re@ct: Social Change, Art and Technology. In 2011 she co-chaired Rewire, the Fourth International Conference on the histories of media art, science and technology with FACT in Liverpool. She was a founding member of the advisory board of the Journal of Curatorial Studies.

curated exhibitions + commissions + curatorial projects

Sleep Mode. a week-long online programme reflecting on the theme of 'always-on' culture and the 'new normal' we can create in a post-lockdown world, hosted by Somerset House, 23-28 June 2020

24/7. 50+ artists respond to our non-stop world, at Somerset House, 31 October 2019 – 23 February 2020

Lifespans: NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Wellgate shopping centre and other venues across Dundee, 2018

Spirit Molecule 1: Heather Dewey Hagborg and Phillip Andrew Lewis. A new commission based on genetic engineering and memorialization, in collaboration with NEoN Digital Arts Festival. At LifeSpace, 5 October 2018 – 19 January 2019

A Working Model of the World (touring exhibition from UNSW Galleries Sydney the Sheila C. Johnson Design Centre and The Curators’ Department), at LifeSpace, 15 June – 22 September 2018

Helen and Kate Storey: Neurogenesis: from neuron birth to all that we are, at LifeSpace, in Centrespace, VRC, DCA, 23 March – 21 April, 2018

Trajectories, exhibition of work by Charlie Murphy and Charles Robert Harrison in collaboration with Created out of Mind, The Hub, Wellcome Collection, at LifeSpace, 2018

Media Archeology: Excavations, NEoN Digital Arts Festival, West Ward Works and other venues across Dundee, 2017

A Diagram of Forces, poster exhibition with artist Andy Lomas and scientist Rastko Sknepnek; co-curated with Susanne Boersma, 2017

bubble, bulge, bleb, exhibition to celebrate the centenary of On Growth & Form, highlighting generative art and computer generated abstractions, including new work by Andy Lomas, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, 2017

Beyond Skin, with ASCUS Arts and Prof. Sara Brown, exhibiting the outcome of workshops and residencies with artists Beverly Hood, Trevor Gordon, Gordon Douglas, Josie Valely, on the subject of atopic eczema, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, 27 June – 22 September 2017

Future Emerging Art and Technology, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, 13 April – 17 June 2017

Herstory of Science, poster exhibition celebrating Dundee womens’ contributions to science since the founding of the University. Athena SWAN funded. University of Dundee.

Signal/Noise: Imaging/Drawing (Daksha Patel) LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, 11 January – 1 April 2017

Silent Signal, touring exhibition from Animate projects LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, 29 September - 26 November 2016

The Gig is Up! V2_Institute for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, November-December 2016

The Spaces We’re In, NEoN Digital Arts Festival programme 2016

All watched over by machines of loving grace. With Clare Brennan for NEoN. Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University, Dundee, 2016

That was then. This is now: Center for PostNatural History, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, June – September 2016

hormonal (exhibition for the Women in Science Festival with the Guerrilla Girls, Mary Maggic Tsang and Juliette Bonneviot), LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, March 3 – May 28 2016

Seeing through the see-through: Mat Fleming, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, October 29, 2015 – February 20, 2016

Right Here, Right Now, The Lowry, Salford, November 14 2015 – February 28, 2016

NEoN Digital Arts Festival 2015 (North East of North Asia, including TaeYoon Choi, Eric Siu, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Shu Lea Cheang and many others), November 8 – 14, 2015

Hearts & Minds (with Aidan Moesby, Jim Pattison, and others), LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, with the Hannah Maclure Centre, Abertay University, September 18 – October 18, 2015

Transmissions, LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, with ASCUS Art and Science, Edinburgh, June 11 – September 5, 2015

Material Concerns LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, February 6 2015 – May 30 2015

Alt-w (invited curatorial project with New Media Scotland), SSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, December 2014

NEoN Digital Arts Festival 2014 (Futureproofing, including Thomson & Craighead, Murray Ballard, Coded After Lovelace), November 2014

Scales of Life LifeSpace Science Art Research Gallery, Dundee, October 1 2014 – January 11 2015

Not even the sky: Thomson & Craighead, MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen, Germany, October 25, 2013 – January 8, 2014

Biomediations with work by Tom Sherman, TRES, Marina Zurkow, Robyn Moody, Peter Lloyd Lewis, Sneha Solanki, Eduardo Kac, Leslie Garcia,  Hasan Elahi, Joseph DeLappe, and many others, Centro Nacional de las Artes / Laboratorio Arte Alameda / Fonateca / Centro Multimedia / Centro Culturel Espana / all for Transitio_MX_05, Festival of Electronic Arts and Video, Mexico City, September 19-30, 2013.

Mirror Neurons, with work by Catherine Richards, Simon Pope, Thomson & Craighead, Michael Snow and Scott Rogers, National Glass Centre at the University of Sunderland, March 1 – May 20, 2012

Joe Winter - A History of Light: Variable Array, National Glass Centre at the University of Sunderland, February 25 – May 20, 2012

Q.E.D. quod erat demonstrandum, LJMU Gallery, AND Festival, Liverpool, September 27 – October 2, 2011

Marina Zurkow: Elixir III, Siva Zona / grey ) ( area, Korcula, Croatia, August 11 - August 27, 2010

The Slow Flow Show (curatorial advisory role), The Green Bench, Whanganui, New Zealand, January 31 - February, 2010

Subjective Projections: Adam Shecter, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefelder, Germany, September 23 - October 13, 2009

Beam Me Up, (online commissions about outer space with work from Joe Winter, Jamie O’Shea and Alec Finlay), Xcult.org, launched in June 2009

SCANZ 2009: Raranga Tangata, co-curated with Mercedes Vincente, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand, February 6 - February 29, 2009

Untethered: A Sculpture Garden of Readymades, with work by Max Dean, Thomson&Craighead, Michel de Broin, Joe Winter, JooYoun Paek, Paul DeMarinis, Germaine Koh, Sascha Pohflepp and others, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York. September 25 - October 25, 2008

Vue des Alpes (Studer/vdBerg), Add-art.org, June 19 - July 3, 2008

Broadcast Yourself: Artists interventions into television and strategies for self-broadcasting from the 1970s to Today, with work from Shaina Anand, Active Ingredient, Miranda July, Doug Hall and Chip Lord, Bill Viola, Chris Burden, VGTV, Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie and others, co-curated with Kathy Rae Huffman for AV Festival 08: Broadcast. Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle, Feb 28 - April 5 2008; Cornerhouse, Manchester, June 13 - August 10, 2008

My Own Private Reality: Growing up online in the 90s and 00s, co-curated with Sabine Himmelsbach, Edith Russ Haus, Oldenburg, Germany, May 11 - July 1, 2007

The Art Formerly Known As New Media (Banff New Media Institute 10th Anniversary exhibition), co-curated with Steve Dietz, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, September 18 - October 23, 2005. Documentation at http://www.yproductions.com/projects/archives/000731.html

Relay: Germaine Koh. BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, July - September, 2005.

Package Holiday: Monica Studer / Christoph van den Berg BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, July 8 - September 4, 2005.

Database Imaginary co-curated with Anthony Kiendl and Steve Dietz, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, November 21 2004 - January 23, 2005 and touring (Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina; Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto; Liane and Danny Taran Gallery, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal).

Art for Networks, curated by Simon Pope, represented at Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland, November 11 - December 12, 2003

Loop: Film Installations: Dara Friedman, Vibeke Tandberg, Marijke van Warmerdam, Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland, January 22 - February 14, 2003.

Monument by Margaret Crane | Jon Winet, commissioned by Locus+, Newcastle upon Tyne, funded by the Arts Council of England New Media Projects Fund, launched July 2002.

Undelete, New work by Helena Swatton. Waygood Gallery and Studios. Newcastle upon Tyne, July, 2001.

Vuk Cosic www.thisistherealmatrix.com for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, online commission as part of A History of the Future, organised by Northern Architecture, January, 2001.

Use nor Ornament co-curated with Helen Smith and Ele Carpenter, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, October 2000.

interviews

2016 Interview with the University of King’s College alumni office about career paths http://ittakescourage.ca/stories/sarah-cook

2013 Interview for the Smithsonian about the Status and Need for Technical Standards in the care of Time-Based Media and Digital Art http://www.si.edu/content/tbma/documents/transcripts/SarahCook_130613.pdf

2012 Interview for Furtherfield about women, art and technology http://www.furtherfield.org/features/interviews/women-art-technology-interview-sarah-cook

2011 Interview for cont3xt.net, Vienna http://cont3xt.net/blog/?p=4538

2010 Interview for artengine.ca about curating http://artengine.ca/blog/?p=1318

2010 Interview with Centro Multimedia, Mexico City (International Seminar on Art and Technology) https://vimeo.com/21046660

2008 Interview for Dance-tech.net about curating digital media http://www.dance-tech.net/video/on-curating-new-media

2008 Interview for Rhizome about the exhibition Untethered http://rhizome.org/editorial/2008/sep/25/interview-with-sarah-cook/

2007 Interview with Regine Debatty for we-make-money-not-art.com http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/05/interview-with-17.php

2006 Interview for the Electronic Arts Intermix Resource Guide http://www.eai.org/resourceguide/exhibition/computer/interview_crumb.html

2004 Interview for Rhizome about the exhibition Database Imaginary http://rhizome.org/discuss/view/15882/

(selected) writings about art

(Forthcoming) “Incubating Cultures”. In: Para-site-seeing: Jen Southern and Rod Dillon. Dundee: Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research, University of Dundee.

(2019) with Reekie, J. “Foreword”. In: Cook, S. (Ed.) 24/7: A Wake-up Call For Our Non-stop World. London: Somerset House. Exhibition related publication includes newly commissioned essays by Jonathan Crary, Douglas Coupland, Malcolm McCullough, Dominic Smith, and interviews with Somerset House Studios artists including Hyphen-Labs, Alan Warburton and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.

(2019) “Structural Subjectivities”. In: Trevor Paglen: From Apple to Anomaly catalogue. London: The Barbican (Curve). 

(2019) “Foreword” in Robinson, A. (Ed.) Kelly Richardson: Pillars of Dawn. Sunderland: Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art and Kerber Verlag.

(2017) “Semantic analysis: the art of parsing found text”. In: Anderson, A (Ed.) Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.

(2016) “The Message is the Medium” In: Cook, S. (Ed.) INFORMATION (Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art). London and Cambridge, Mass.: Whitechapel and MIT Press.

(2015) with Frost, C., Baumgartel, T., Jones, C., “Net.video.abstraction” In: Jennings, G. (Ed.), Abstract Video: The Moving Image in Contemporary Art. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

(2014) “Containers of/for Information” In: Atkinson, C. (Ed.) INDEX. Lancashire: Cafe Royal Books.

(2013) “Far Out! Distance and Location in the work of Thomson & Craighead” In: Cook, S. (Ed.) Flat Earth: Thomson & Craighead. Memmingen: MEWO Kunsthalle and Dundee Contemporary Arts.

(2013) “We’re not hobbyists or dabblers anymore” In: Dekker, A. (Ed.) Speculative Scenarios, or what will happen to born-digital art in the (near) future. Eindhoven: BALTAN Laboratories.

(2013) “Open Social Scene” Germaine Koh: Weather Systems. Kamloops: Kamloops Art Gallery.

(2011) Co-edited with Sara Diamond, Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues. Banff: Banff Centre Press and Toronto: Riverside Architectural Press.

(2011) Review of the exhibition “Nam June Paik” at FACT and Tate Liverpool in: ETC. Revue de l’art actuel, issue 93, Montreal: 2011

(2011) “SBJDSC” In: Penny McCann (Ed.) Public Domain. Ottawa: SAW Video.

(2010) Review of the exhibition “Feedfoward at LABoral” in: ETC. Revue de l’art actuel, issue 89, Montreal: 2010

(2009) Interview with Susan Collins In: ETC. Revue de l’art actuel, issue 88, Montreal: 2009

(2009) Review of the exhibition “Schematic: Canadian New Media Art” In: ETC. Revue de l’art actuel, issue 86, Montreal,: 2009

(2009) “Radical Art” In: Mike Stubbs and Karen Newman (eds.) We Are the Real Time Experiment: 20 Years of FACT, Liverpool University Press, 2009

(2009) Arts Overview » United Kingdom » Digital and Media ». In: China-UK Connections Through Culture, London: The British Council, 2009. (co-author with Beryl Graham)

(2008) “The Work of Art in the Age of Ubiquitous Narrowcasting?” In: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds.) VIDEO VORTEX Reader, Responses to YouTube. Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2008.

(2007) “Network Memory: Always Live and yet Always and Archive” In: Xandra Ededn (ed.) Lining of Forgetting (exhibition catalogue), Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, N.C., 2007

(2007) Essay on the work of David Rokeby In: Silicon Remembers Carbon (online catalogue), FACT, 2007

(2007) “The Logic of Historical Reenactment: Respeaking and Remediation in Contemporary Art”. In: Sabine Himmelsbach (Ed.) Playback_simulated realites, Edith Russ Haus for Media Art, Oldenberg, Germany, 2007

(2006) “Slow Down You Move Too Fast, Try to Make The Moment Last: Reflections on Camera-Capturing in the Work of Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg”. In: Somewhere Else is the Same Place. Solothurn: Kunstmuseum Solothurn. 2006. pp 62-71.

(2004) “What Would Artificial Intelligence Find Aesthetically Pleasing?: The burning question of generative art and its audience” In: Cornelia Sollfrank Net Art Generator, Verlag fur moderne Kunst Nurnberg, 2004.

(2003) Simon Pope Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art, 2003. Interview conducted with Kris Cohen online at http://venice.ambulantscience.org/documentation/interviews/catalogue_interview.html

(2001) Vuk Cosic net.art per me, Venice Biennial, Absolute One, 2001.

(2000) James Hutchinson, New Mapping, Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland, 2000.

Other articles, reviews, and book reviews can be found in ETC.Montreal, The Believer, Mute, low-fi, Public Art Journal, Art Monthly, [a-n] Magazine, Cream, Convergence Journal, and on the web.

(selected) writings about curating

(Forthcoming), “Lifespans of data-driven art science collaborations”. In: Muller, L. and Langill, C. (Eds.) Curating Lively Objects: Post-disciplinary museum perspectives. New York: Routledge

(2017) with K. De Wild, “New Media Art and Canonisation: A Round Robin Discussion”. In Iskin, R. (Ed.) Re-envisioning the Contemporary Art Canon: Perspectives in a Global World. New York: Routledge.

(2016) “Stop, Drop and Roll With It: Curating Participatory Media Art” In: Bianchini, S. and Verhagen, E. (eds.) Practicable: From Participation to Interaction in Contemporary Art. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

(2016) with Aneta Krzemien-Barkley “The Digital Arts In and Out of the Institution ­– Where to Now?” In: Paul, C. (Ed.) A Companion to Digital Art. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

(2012) “Curating New Media Art” In Cosetta Saba, Julia Noordegraaf, Barbara Le Maître and Vinzenz Hediger (eds.) Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives. (Framing Film Series), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012.

(2010) Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010 (co-author with Beryl Graham). Read a review on Rhizome here.

(2010) A Brief History of Curating New Media Art: Conversations with Curators, Berlin: The Green Box, 2010 (co-editor with Axel Lapp, Beryl Graham, Verina Gfader).

(2010) A Brief History of Working With New Media Art: Conversations with Artists, Berlin: The Green Box, 2010 (co-editor with Axel Lapp, Beryl Graham, Verina Gfader).

(2010) “Understanding Quality: Curatorial Strategies for Online Artistic Production” In: Sophie Krier, ed. Me, You, and Everyone We Know Is A Curator Journal. Breda: Graphic Design Museum, 2010

(2009) “Immateriality and its discontents: models of curating new media art”. In: Christiane Paul (ed.) Curating New Media. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

(2005) Co-moderator of Code of Practice online forum, Tate, London, UK June 13 - July 18 2005.

(2005) “Context Specific Curating on the Web (CSCW)”. In: Tom Corby (ed.) Network Art: Practices and Positions, London: Routledge, 2005.

(2004) “Digital art creation and curation in an online community”. In: Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kenderdine (eds.) Theorising Futures For The Past: Cultural Heritage And Digital Media. Australia: MIT Press, 2009 (drafted 2004).

(2005) “Researching and Presenting a History of New Media: Ten Years of the Banff New Media Institute”, In: J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2005: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics.

(2003) “Towards a Theory of New Media Curating”. In: Melanie Townsend (ed.) Beyond the Box: Diverging Curatorial Practices, Banff Centre Press, 2003.

(2001) Co-editor, Baltic International Seminar - Curating New Media (Proceedings from a seminar organised in May 2001)

academic work

Professor of Museum Studies in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow, 2018-

Dundee Fellow, University of Dundee, 2013-2018

Honorary Research Fellow, University of Liverpool (Centre for Architecture and Visual Art), 2012/2013

Guest Curator / Theorist in Residence, University of Edinburgh (History of Art), 2011/2012

Reader / Research Fellow, University of Sunderland, 2004-2013, including:

AHRC-funded post-doctoral fellow, 2007 – 2010, University of Sunderland and CRUMB. Co-investigator with Prof Beryl Graham, International Networks and curating new media art, with partners Eyebeam (Amanda McDonald Crowley) and University of Lancaster (Dr. Charlie Gere)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, 2006-2008, with the University of Sunderland and CRUMB investigating technologies of simulation in art, curating, and artists (self-) presentation online.

Lecturer / Module leader - MA Curating, University of Sunderland

PhD Completed March 2004. The Search for a Third Way of Curating New Media Art: Balancing Content and Context in and out of the Institution. Supported by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her PhD thesis includes theoretical and practical models of new media curatorial practice in Canada researched while a fellow in Post-1970 Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada.

MA Completed 1998. Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, NY. Her thesis exhibition, au courant, investigated the electrical infrastructure of new media works through the site-specific installations and video by Keith Sonnier, Michel de Broin, Tatsuo Miyajima and Gary Hill.

(selected) lectures + talks + workshops + consulting + collaborations

November 2019 – Re@act: Social Change, Art, Technology. co-chair with Prof. Joseph DeLappe and Dr. Laura Leuzzi of three-day symposium as part of NEoN Digital Arts Festival: REACT, Dundee

May 2019 – “Art and science collaborations”, with Jen Southern, opening panel presentation for Setting our Sights on Infection global conference, Wellcome Centre for Anti-Infectives Research, University of Dundee

May 2019 – “Material histories of technological objects” with Nicky Reeves, for Materialist Pedagogies, Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy workshop, University of Dundee

26 April 2019 – “Post-digital/post-media/post-Internet”, invited lecture for Post-Digital Day, University of Glasgow, CCA Glasgow

12 March 2019 – “New Media + New Museum”, invited lecture for the opening of the Media Majlis at Northwest University, Doha, Qatar

8 March 2019 – “Artists and AI”, invited lecture for Aesthetic Glitches / Enhanced Performances, part of Creative Algorithms: When Artificial Intelligence Enters the Art World, Goethe-Institut, Glasgow

20 February 2019 – invited lecture about digital art and perception for Cognitive Sensations, FACT, Liverpool (video documentation here from 26:19)

November 2018 - NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Chair, Mini symposium on Lifespans, V&A Museum of Design, Dundee

March 2018 - Media Art Worlds, invited keynote lecture for European Media Art Programme conference on hybrid economies of digital art, m-cult, Helsinki

13 December 2017 - “A Brief Curatorial History of Digital and Media Art”, Helsinki International Artists Programme, Finland http://www.hiap.fi/event/talk-brief-curatorial-history-digital-and-media-art

22 November 2017 - “Exhibiting Art After New Media”, Royal Academy of Arts, London, (Part of Great Exhibitions: From the Ancient to the Virtual Lecture Series). This series featured curators and art historians detailing landmark art exhibitions. 22 Nov 2017

November 2017 - NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Chair, Mini symposium on Media Archaeology, Dundee

10 October 2017- Paik’s Virtual Archive: Time Change and Materiality in Media Art (panel discussion and book launch), Institute for Advanced Studies, UCL, London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/ias-events/ias_book_launch_paiks_virtual_archive_time_change_and_materiality_in_media_art

14 September 2017- (with Alexandra Ross) Learnings from the Daring Curating, at The Future of Creative Innovation and Technology, Fak’ugesi Conference http://fakugesi.co.za/event/fakugesi-conference-14-sept/

10 May 2017 - Can you see me now? Artists show us behind the scenes of information overload, Philosophy Matters Forum (Is your iPhone making your life worse?), University of Kent http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/philosophy-matters/

17 February 2017 - New Media Futures, New Media Caucus Roundtable, College Art Association Conference, New York, 17 February 2017 http://www.newmediacaucus.org/events/2017-caa-new-york-events/

February 2017 - Art and Information; a closing event for the exhibition, All watched over by machines of loving grace, panel discussion with Ashley Woodward, Dominic Smith, Tom Sherman, Hannah Maclure Centre, Dundee

November 2016 - NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Chair, Mini symposium on the Spaces We’re In, Dundee

November 2016 - Information-based art, Pecha Kucha, Creative Dundee

October 2016 - Curating intermedia and information-based art, St. Andrews Art History Research Seminar Series

19 October 2016 - “Information-based art”, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Canada, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, University of King’s College, Dalhousie Art Gallery, St. Mary’s University collaborated to co-host the lecture and national book launch.

October 2016 - Hippo Attacked*: contemporary art's intersection with science and technology, History of Science and Technology, Contemporary Studies Programme, University of King’s College, Halifax, Canada, October 2016 (*title randomly selected from live web searches from the online work, AutomatedBeacon.net by artists Thomson & Craighead)

30 September 2016 - Nihilism, Information, and Art, a panel discussion (to launch Lyotard and the Inhuman Condition: Reflections on Nihilism, Information, and Art by Ashley Woodward), Generator Projects, Dundee

1 September 2016 - INFORMATION (Documents of Contemporary Art) (book launch) Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

May 2016 - Rethinking what art is (and can be) in a digital age, Dundee Arts Café, McManus Museum

16 May 2016 - “Curating Art After New Media”, Videotage, Hong Kong (5-day Professional development course – a parallel programme to ISEA 2016). Funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

February 2016 - Silent Signal symposium (art and science animation collaborations), University of Derby and QUAD (Animate Projects) invited discussion chair

December 2015 - Design Interactions, Royal College, guest lecture and studio visits

24 November 2015 - “Outliving the Exhibition: Curating generative and durational screen-based practices”, UFES, Vitoria and Sao Paulo, Brazil (Invited keynote lecture for Besides the Screen conference, resulting in publications in both English and Portuguese)

October 2015 - St. Andrews Art History careers day discussion

21 September 2015 - “Generative and Variable Media Art”, The Bard Graduate Centre, New York (Part of Revisions – Object, Event, Performance, Process since the 1960s, international symposium about artist Nam June Paik).

July 2015 - The National Football Museum, Manchester, UK, Consultant and curatorial advisor, Pitch to Pixel

July 2015 - Lively Objects symposium, The Banff Centre Canada

July 2015 - Fabian Films, managing art science collaborations, talk, Spacex Arts, Exeter

February 2015 - Dublin: iDAT LAB talk – Curating at the intersection of art and science

February 2015 - Cork: Glucksman Museum, gallery lunchtime talk

February 2015 - London: talk to curatorial students from University of Sunderland short course

20 February 2015 - “After the Future” opening plenary, Digital Utopias, Hull. The one-day event, organized by Arts Council England and Abandon Normal Devices Festival, brought together artists, cultural organizations and museums to interrogate current digital practices across the arts, a trailblazer event for Hull’s year as Capital of Culture 2017.

November 2014 - NEoN Digital Arts Festival, Chair, Mini symposium on Futureproofing Media and Digital Art (“Show Us Your Assets”), Dundee

29 November 2014 - “Information in Art”, Science Museum, London. Part of Networked Voices, symposium organized in collaboration with Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmith’s, for the interactive art commission by artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in the Information Age gallery, following on from contribution to the publication accompanying the new gallery.

June 2014 - Co-chair Fieldwork: International Reports on Curating (Parallel Conversations). Hospitalfield Arts Summer School programme.

2014   Keynote. Art and Space Travel (the night of artist Angelo Vermeulen), Dutch Electronic Art Festival, NL

2014   ‘Show me the money: the image of finance’ Panel Discussion, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK

2014   Collaboration and Curating: Scottish Contemporary Art Network panel discussion, City Arts Centre, Edinburgh

2014   Thinking Digital Arts, In Conversation, New Bridge Projects, Newcastle

February 2014 - Affects of Site (site-specific art), Nippissing University, Canada 2014.

23 November 2013 - “Curating and Exhibiting Time-based Work”, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh (Part of A Collection of Misfits: Time-Based Media and the Museum International Symposium). The Carnegie Museum is widely recognised as the USA’s first museum of contemporary art (founded 1896) and the first to programme and collect film, video and time-based works.   

25 June 2013 - “Rethinking Curating: Art After New Media”, International Conference on the Arts in Society, Budapest. Theme: New Media, Technology and the Arts, Invited plenary opening lecture.

2013 - “artistic mediations of life”, Biomediations conference, Goldsmiths, London

May 2013 - Co-organiser Surreptitious Networks (with artist Isabella Streffen), Pixel Palace, Tyneside Cinema

March 2013 - Co-organiser Hybrid Curatorial Models: Producing and Publishing (with curator Marialaura Ghidini), Sarai, New Delhi, March 2013

January 2013 - Euphoria & Dystopia - The Future of Digital Media Research. Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto

2012 - Ephemeral Sustainability (curating and preserving sound art), Lydgalleriet, Bergen, Norway

February 2012 - invited speaker, Creative Times: The Beauty of Digital 3, New Technologies and Old Aesthetics. Pixel Palace, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.

September 2011 - Co-chair, Rewire: Fourth International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, FACT and LJMU.

February 2011 - “Participation and Engagement: Curating Contemporary Art after New Media”, College Art Association, 99^th annual conference.

9 September 2010 - “Time and Space as Artistic Media”, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Part of Theory Talks @ The Temporary Stedelijk). During the long period that the Stedelijk was closed for renovation, the innovative Temporary Programme structured its ongoing contribution to art theory and criticism. The lecture series was a collaboration with the Curatorial Program of de Appel Art Centre and Univ of Amsterdam, featuring prominent scholars and theorists.         

August 2010 - keynote at the International Seminar on Art and Technology at Centro Multimedia / Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City

April and May 2010 - three week writing residency at SAW Video in Ottawa for their Public Domain project.

April and May 2010 - invited speaker for talks about the book Rethinking Curating at: National Gallery of Canada; Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto; Hexagram, Concordia University, Montreal; NT2 Lab at Universite du Quebec a Montreal; The Western Front Society, Vancouver; The Banff New Media Institute; EMMEDIA, Calgary; Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University.

April 2010 - chair and presenter, “Rethinking Curating: Participative, Collaborative and Educational Turns in Contemporary Art” with Maria Lind, Artists’ Space, New York

December 2009 - invited speaker, “Curatorial Strategies for Online Artistic Production” at the symposium Me, You, and Everyone We Know Is A Curator organized by the Graphic Design Museum (Breda) at Paradiso, Amsterdam.

November 2009 - invited Masterclass presenter, “Networking and Research” at Superhuman, organized by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), in Melbourne, Australia

October 2009 - invited speaker, “Aesthetics of new media: simulation” at the symposium for the exhibition FEEDFORWARD, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijon, Spain

September 2009 - co-organizer and presenter, “Real Time: Showing Art in the Age of New Media”, conference organized by CRUMB for the AND Festival, FACT, Liverpool.

August 2009 - co-organizer and host, Open Bliss Workshops, organized by CRUMB for ISEA 2009 in Belfast.

July 2009 - organizer and host, Curatorial Masterclass Series, organized by CRUMB for Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York.

May 2008 - invited speaker, Portraits of Transculturalism - International Symposium, Sabanci University / Istanbul Modern / Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

May 2008 - invited guest, Archive2020 expert meeting, Virtueel Platform, Amsterdam

March 2009 - discussion chair and co-organiser, CRUMB-Culturelab AHRC funded postgraduate research training event, Culturelab, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

March 2009 - invited speaker, Resolutely Analogue? Art Museums in Digital Culture, Tate Research Encounters, Tate Britain, UK

February 2009 - guest curator and invited speaker, SCANZ Residency, Intercreate.org, New Plymouth, NZ

October 2008 - invited speaker, Curating New Media Art, Espacio Fundacion Telefonica, Buenos Aires, Argentina

April 2008 - invited speaker, d.a.t.a. event 29 (Dublin Art and Technology Association), Dublin, Ireland

March 2008 - co-organiser, Documenting New Media Art Workshop, organized by CRUMB with Caitlin Jones, for AV Festival 08: Broadcast, Newcastle upon Tyne. (Funded by Arts Council England Inspiring Internationalists)

January 2008 - invited speaker, Curating Online Video, Video Vortex conference, Institute for Network Cultures, Amsterdam

December 2007 - curator, Cory Arcangel performance, lecture and screening of Untitled Translation Exercise, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne (organized in conjunction with Film and Video Umbrella, London, and the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland). Funded by The Leverhulme Trust.

October 2007 - curator, Joseph DeLappe performance dead-in-iraq  and in-conversation with Rod Dickinson, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne. Funded by The Leverhulme Trust.

August 2007 - Keynote speaker, Interactive Screen 07: User-Friendly is not enough! The Banff New Media Institute, Banff.

April 2007 - co-organiser and host, Crisis to Bliss Centre workshops, organized by CRUMB for Enter Festival, Cambridge UK

April 2007 - curator, Myron Campbell lecture/demonstration, as part of polytechnic, plug and play night, Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne.

November 2006 - invited speaker, panel on Curating New Media Art, CHArt conference, London

August 2006 - organizer and host, Crisis to Bliss workshops organized by CRUMB for ISEA 2006 / ZeroOne Festival of art on the edge, San Jose, CA.

June 2006 - Informal New media books discussion: Charlie Gere and Jon Ippolito in conversation, (co-hosted by Forma), Newcastle upon Tyne

April 2006 - Speaker and workshop coordinator, Art Place Technology conference, Liverpool John Moores University and FACT, Liverpool.

2005/2006 - co-initiator and consultant, Node London,.

December 2005 - Guest speaker, production labs for new media art (on behalf of the Banff New Media Institute), Centre for Contemporary Art, Andalucia, Seville, Spain.

December 2005 Panel convenor and chair, re-enactment in art and technology (Simon Pope; Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie; Tom McCarthy; Mark Waugh), Radiator Festival, Nottingham.

October 2005 visiting curator and guest lecturer, Virtual Platform and Argos, Brussels.

August 2004 - Day to Day Data workshops with Ellie Harrison at Angel's Row Gallery, Nottingham.

June/July 2004 - ISIS Arts Residency with Saul Albert, establishing the Faculty of Taxonomy at the University of Openess

April 2004 - Simulation and Other Re-enactments, presentation at the Banff New Media Institute summit, with artists Ben Coode Adams, Kris Cohen, Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie, Rod Dickinson, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Marcus Coates, Jeremy Deller and others.

September 2003 - Databased Art event (seminar and workshops and performance) at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, with Lev Manovich, Rupert Huber, Brian Duffy, Cornelia Sollfrank, Graham Harwood, Steve Dietz and others.

November 2002 - Invited chair for the Remote Forum: Scottish and international new media artists respond to the Scottish Highlands, with the artists Radioqualia, Thomson & Craighead, Cavan Convery, Simon Fildes and Katrina McPherson and the theorists Sean Cubitt and Lev Manovich. Organized by New Media Scotland and Highland Research, Newtonmore, Scotland.

October 2002 - Bridges II: Collaborations in Art and Science (evening presentations with artists Thomson & Craighead, Margaret Crane|Jon Winet and others), Banff New Media Institute, Banff Centre for the Arts.

May 2002 - Guest lecturer, Digital Networks with Sean Dodson and Adrian Rifkin, The Photographers Gallery, London, UK

January 2002 - Guest lecturer, Net Art and Art Criticism, Panel discussion with Tilman Baumgaertel, Frederic Madre, Harwood, and JODI, organized by Josephine Bosma and Eric Kluitenberg at De Balie, Amsterdam

December 2001 - Co-organiser and chair, Production, Distribution, Consumption (curating new media) seminar, Ottawa Art Gallery.

last century…

Sarah worked at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for a year as a curatorial research intern working with the permanent collection and helping curate exhibitions of work by Andy Warhol, Lorna Simpson, Yayoi Kusama and others. After leaving she also worked with Steve Dietz and the New Media Initiatives Department to organize and moderate an on-line forum, concerning art, entertainment and technology.

As a recent graduate, she worked at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, organizing an exhibition from the Art Metropole archive of conceptual art, Fluxus, artists' books and multiples.

In December 1999 she curated First Descent, an exhibition of art and artifacts from snowboard culture, for the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, and Bellevue Art Museum, Seattle.

This page www.sarahcook.info is badly in need of an upgrade; its design was inspired by this

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